An Austin judge ordered five Travis County prisoners into treatment at the Austin State Hospital last Tuesday an act of frustration that, if repeated, could provoke a confrontation over the state's underfunded and strained mental health system.

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[As the article notes, Williamson County judges have been taking this approach for some time. At the request of our office, they are putting in a requirement that each defendant be transferred within 14 days.

This problem is similar to the way county jail overcrowding was solved back in the early 1990's. Counties sued the state, alleging the state had a duty to accept prisoners. Eventually, the lawsuit was settled, more prisons were built and the state agreed to pay a daily rate for holding an inmate in a county jail beyond 45 days.]